World leaders, senior ministers and key figures in climate diplomacy have one by one reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris agreement this week, in response to the order by Donald Trump to withdraw the US from the pact.
The prospect of the world keeping temperatures to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, as the treaty calls for, was damaged by the incoming US president’s move. Hopes of meeting the target were already fast receding, and last year was the first to consistently breach the 1.5C limit, but the goal will be measured over years or even decades and stringent cuts to emissions now could still make a difference.
Along with withdrawing from the Paris agreement, Trump also abolished many of the limits and incentives to reduce fossil fuel use, and signalled his intention to continue to back big oil. The US is already the world’s leading exporter of gas, and oil production rose to record levels under Biden. These factors could counter the progress that renewables have made across the country in recent years, in part owing to Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Adair Turner, chair of the Energy Transitions Commission thinktank, said that Trump’s actions could add about 0.3C to global heating and spur other countries to dial back on their carbon-cutting efforts.
However other countries have made progress without, or even in spite of, the US before. After all, Trump also began the process of withdrawal during his last presidency, although it only took effect as he was leaving office. Before that, international agreement on climate action was held up for years under George W Bush’s presidency.
The US now joins only a handful of failed or war-torn states, including Libya, Iran and Yemen, in rejecting the 2015 accord. While the US has long been one of the world’s top two biggest sources of greenhouse gas emissions – along with China – its significance has diminished as developing countries rapidly increase their share of global carbon output.
So how has the world reacted to Trump’s move, and what does it mean for global climate diplomacy?
The EU
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a speech at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos: “The Paris agreement continues to be the best hope for all humanity. So Europe will stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming.”
Wopke Hoekstra, the EU’s climate commissioner, wrote on social media that the decision was “a truly unfortunate development” but that “despite this setback, we remain committed to working with the U.S. and our international partners to address the pressing issue of climate change… The Paris Agreement has strong foundations and is here to stay.”
The UK
Ed Miliband, the UK’s energy security and net zero secretary, told a committee of the House of Lords on Tuesday he would “try to find common ground” with Trump, and that it was still in the US “national self-interest” to seek to tackle the climate crisis. “We are strong supporters of the Paris agreement,” he added. “I believe this transition [to clean energy] is unstoppable.”
The recent Cop29 summit in Azerbaijan had demonstrated that, he added. “Countries believe their national self-interest remains in the Paris agreement. The dangers to them are in not moving forward. [The transition] is not happening fast enough, but it is unstoppable.”
William Hague, the former foreign secretary, wrote in the Times: “For a country that has just experienced the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, and faces ever more terrifying hurricanes, to abandon the Paris climate agreement and remove all limits on fossil fuel use is to live in denial.”
Kim Darroch, former UK ambassador to the US, and John Ashton, the UK’s climate envoy from 2006 to 2012, wrote to the newspaper calling for those in the US still committed to climate action to work with international partners. “Climate failure will impoverish us all and make our tinderbox world yet more insecure. We must now work with those in the US and elsewhere who understand the imperative of bringing the age of fossil energy to the earliest possible end.”
Canada
Steven Guilbeault, Canda’s minister of environment and climate change, told journalists: “It is deplorable that the president of the US has decided to pull out of the Paris agreement. It is unfortunately not the first time. The Paris agreement is bigger than one country, it is 194 countries who have collectively continued to fight climate change despite the absence of the US. Despite the fact that the federal government no longer seems interested in fighting climate change, we see a lot of support from US states and the private sector. It is ironic that the president would do that when California is going through the worst forest fire season in its history.”
Canada was “fully committed to its obligations under the Paris agreement”, he later told the Guardian in a statement. “By continuing to work together, Canada and the US can achieve far more in driving green growth and creating economic opportunities which also address climate change and protect lands and oceans.”
African Group of Negotiators
In a joint statement, the climate change group said: “This decision is a direct threat to global efforts to limit temperature rise and avert the catastrophic impacts of climate change, particularly for the world’s most vulnerable nations. The US, one of the world’s largest carbon emitters, bears a historical responsibility to lead in climate action. By abandoning its commitments under the Paris agreement, the US undermines years of hard-fought progress and sends a dangerous signal to the international community. For Africa and other developing countries, the implications are severe. Africa, already on the frontline of the climate crisis, faces escalating droughts, floods, and extreme weather events that threaten lives and livelihoods, exacerbate food insecurity, and destabilise economies. The withdrawal of US leadership diminishes the critical financial and technical support required to adapt to these challenges, leaving vulnerable nations to bear an unjust burden.”
The chair of the Least Developed Countries group, Evans Njewa, said on X: “We deeply regret USA plans to exit from #ParisAgreement (PA). This threatens to reverse hard-won gains in reducing emissions & puts our vulnerable countries at greater risk. The PA remains a vital climate pact & we must protect it for the future of our planet & generation.”
China
China’s foreign minister spokesman Guo Jiakun told a news conference: “Climate change is a common challenge faced by all of humanity. No country can remain unaffected or solve the problem on its own. China will work with all parties to actively address the challenges of climate change.”
Brazil
Marina Silva, environment minister of Brazil, which will host the Cop30 talks in Belem in November, said: “[Trump’s decisions] are the opposite of policies guided by evidence brought by science and common sense, imposed by the reality of extreme weather events, including in his own country.”
